Shatranj Ke Khilari
Encyclopedia
Shatranj Ke Khilari is a 1977 Indian film
by Bengali
director Satyajit Ray
, based on Munshi Premchand
's short story of the same name. Amjad Khan
plays the role of Avadh king Wajid Ali Shah
, and Richard Attenborough
plays the role of General James Outram
. The film also features the actors Sanjeev Kumar
, Saeed Jaffrey
, Shabana Azmi
, David Abraham and Tom Alter
.
Unlike most of Ray's films, the dialogue in the film is in Urdu
and Hindi
. There is little dialogue but the fastidious research and sophisticated portrayal of clashing cultures earned acclaim from both film critics and historians of the period.
The film is set in 1856 and shows the life and customs of 19th century India
on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857
. The focus is on events surrounding the British annexation of the Indian State of Awadh
(also spelt Oudh), the politics of colonial expansion by the British East India Company
and the deluded divisions of Indian monarchs.
The Chess Players employed stars of the Bombay cinema
(Amjad Khan
, Shabana Azmi
and Amitabh Bachchan
as a narrator) together with Western actors such as Richard Attenborough
. Much of the film was shot on location in Lucknow
and Rajasthan
. Ray was so impressed with Amitabh Bachchan
that he decided to use his voice as commentary in Shatranj Ke Khiladi since he did not find any suitable role for him. http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/specials/amitabh/trivia.htm
The film went on to win three Filmfare Awards
, including the Critics Award for Best Movie
, and was a nominee for the Golden Bear
for Best Film at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival
.
(whose capital is Lucknow
) and its Muslim Nawab
Wajid Ali Shah
who is overthrown by the British, alongside the story of two chess-obsessed noblemen.
The Nawab is portrayed as a debauched but sympathetic figure by Satyajit Ray
. He is an artist and poet, no longer in command of events and unable to effectively oppose the British demand for his throne. Parallel to this wider drama is the personal (and sometimes humorous) tale of two rich noblemen of this kingdom, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali. Inseparable friends, the two nobles became passionately obsessed with the game of shatranj
(chess
), neglecting their wives and failing to act against the real-life seizure of their kingdom by the East India Company
. Instead, the two nobles abandon their families and responsibilities, fleeing from Lucknow to play chess in village exile untroubled by greater events. Ray's basic theme in the film is the message that the detachment of India's ruling classes assisted a small number of British officials and soldiers to take over Awadh
without opposition.
The role of Captain Weston, so British in his ways, but in love with Urdu poetry
, is also worth noting.
In the last scene, after which Mir shoots at Mirza and complains out loud "I won't have a partner to play chess with", Mirza responds to him "but you have one in front of you!" (thus making him understand that he forgives him). He finally concludes that "after nightfall, we will go back home. We both need darkness to hide our faces."
Berlin International Film Festival
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
by Bengali
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
director Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
, based on Munshi Premchand
Munshi Premchand
Munshi Premchand , was a famous writer of modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is generally recognized in India as the foremost Hindi-Urdu writer of the early twentieth century...
's short story of the same name. Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan was an acclaimed Indian actor and director. He worked in over 130 films in his film career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for his villainous roles in Hindi films the most famous being the unforgettable Gabbar Singh in 1975 classic Sholay...
plays the role of Avadh king Wajid Ali Shah
Wajid Ali Shah
Wajid Ali Shah was the fifth King of Oudh, holding the position from 13 February 1847 to 7 February 1856....
, and Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
plays the role of General James Outram
Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet
Lieutenant General Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet GCB KSI was an English general who fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and is considered a British hero.-Early life:...
. The film also features the actors Sanjeev Kumar
Sanjeev Kumar (actor)
Sanjeev Kumar was one of the most prominent Indian actors in Bollywood.-Personal life and background:Sanjeev Kumar was born as Jariwala in Gujarat to a Gujarati family. His first home was in Surat and family based in Mumbai. A stint in the film school took him to Bollywood, where he eventually...
, Saeed Jaffrey
Saeed Jaffrey
Saeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
, Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
, David Abraham and Tom Alter
Tom Alter
Tom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
.
Unlike most of Ray's films, the dialogue in the film is in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
. There is little dialogue but the fastidious research and sophisticated portrayal of clashing cultures earned acclaim from both film critics and historians of the period.
The film is set in 1856 and shows the life and customs of 19th century India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
. The focus is on events surrounding the British annexation of the Indian State of Awadh
Awadh
Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
(also spelt Oudh), the politics of colonial expansion by the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
and the deluded divisions of Indian monarchs.
The Chess Players employed stars of the Bombay cinema
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
(Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan was an acclaimed Indian actor and director. He worked in over 130 films in his film career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for his villainous roles in Hindi films the most famous being the unforgettable Gabbar Singh in 1975 classic Sholay...
, Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
and Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
as a narrator) together with Western actors such as Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
. Much of the film was shot on location in Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
and Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. Ray was so impressed with Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
that he decided to use his voice as commentary in Shatranj Ke Khiladi since he did not find any suitable role for him. http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/specials/amitabh/trivia.htm
The film went on to win three Filmfare Awards
Filmfare Awards
The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Hindi language film industry of India. The Filmfare ceremony is one of the oldest and most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India. The awards were...
, including the Critics Award for Best Movie
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie
The Filmfare Awards are the oldest and most prominent film awards given for Hindi films in India. The yearly awards started in 1953. Movie awards were first given by popular vote...
, and was a nominee for the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
for Best Film at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival
28th Berlin International Film Festival
The 28th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 22 to March 5, 1978. This was the first year the festival was held in February.-Jury:* Patricia Highsmith * Sergio Leone* Theodoros Angelopoulos* Jacques Rozier...
.
Cast
- Sanjeev KumarSanjeev Kumar (actor)Sanjeev Kumar was one of the most prominent Indian actors in Bollywood.-Personal life and background:Sanjeev Kumar was born as Jariwala in Gujarat to a Gujarati family. His first home was in Surat and family based in Mumbai. A stint in the film school took him to Bollywood, where he eventually...
- Mirza Sajjad Ali - Saeed JaffreySaeed JaffreySaeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
- Mir Roshan Ali - Shabana AzmiShabana AzmiShabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
- Khurshid, Mirza's wife - Farida JalalFarida Jalal- Career :Farida Jalal, a native of New Delhi, started her career in the 1960s, when she won the United Film Producers Talent Hunt sponsored by Filmfare. She usually played the sister or rejected fiancée of the male lead, but almost never the female lead...
- Nafisa, Mir's wife - Amjad KhanAmjad KhanAmjad Khan was an acclaimed Indian actor and director. He worked in over 130 films in his film career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for his villainous roles in Hindi films the most famous being the unforgettable Gabbar Singh in 1975 classic Sholay...
- Wajid Ali ShahWajid Ali ShahWajid Ali Shah was the fifth King of Oudh, holding the position from 13 February 1847 to 7 February 1856.... - David Abraham - Munshi Nandlal
- Richard Attenbrough - General James OutramSir James Outram, 1st BaronetLieutenant General Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet GCB KSI was an English general who fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and is considered a British hero.-Early life:...
- Victor BanerjeeVictor BanerjeeVictor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi, Bengali and English language films. He has also appeared on a number of TV series on Indian television...
- Prime Minister - Farooq ShaikhFarooq ShaikhFarooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema...
- Aqueel - Tom AlterTom AlterTom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
- Capt. Weston (Outram's aide de camp) - Leela MishraLeela MishraLeela Mishra was an Indian film actor, who worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, eventually playing stock characters like aunts, Chachi or Mausi...
- Hirya, Khurshid's maid - Samarth Narain - Kallu
- Bhudo Advani - Abbajani
- Amitabh BachchanAmitabh BachchanAmitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
- (narrator)
Story
The film shows in parallel the historical drama of the Indian kingdom AwadhAwadh
Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
(whose capital is Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
) and its Muslim Nawab
Nawab
A Nawab or Nawaab is an honorific title given to Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia. It is the Muslim equivalent of the term "maharaja" that was granted to Hindu rulers....
Wajid Ali Shah
Wajid Ali Shah
Wajid Ali Shah was the fifth King of Oudh, holding the position from 13 February 1847 to 7 February 1856....
who is overthrown by the British, alongside the story of two chess-obsessed noblemen.
The Nawab is portrayed as a debauched but sympathetic figure by Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
. He is an artist and poet, no longer in command of events and unable to effectively oppose the British demand for his throne. Parallel to this wider drama is the personal (and sometimes humorous) tale of two rich noblemen of this kingdom, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali. Inseparable friends, the two nobles became passionately obsessed with the game of shatranj
Shatranj
Shatranj is an old form of chess, which came to the Western world from India. Modern chess has gradually developed from this game.-Etymology and origins:...
(chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
), neglecting their wives and failing to act against the real-life seizure of their kingdom by the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. Instead, the two nobles abandon their families and responsibilities, fleeing from Lucknow to play chess in village exile untroubled by greater events. Ray's basic theme in the film is the message that the detachment of India's ruling classes assisted a small number of British officials and soldiers to take over Awadh
Awadh
Awadh , also known in various British historical texts as Oudh or Oude derived from Ayodhya, is a region in the centre of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh...
without opposition.
The role of Captain Weston, so British in his ways, but in love with Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry is a rich tradition of poetry and has many different types and forms. Borrowing much from the Persian language, it is today an important part of Pakistani and North Indian culture....
, is also worth noting.
In the last scene, after which Mir shoots at Mirza and complains out loud "I won't have a partner to play chess with", Mirza responds to him "but you have one in front of you!" (thus making him understand that he forgives him). He finally concludes that "after nightfall, we will go back home. We both need darkness to hide our faces."
Awards
Filmfare AwardsFilmfare Awards
The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Hindi language film industry of India. The Filmfare ceremony is one of the oldest and most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India. The awards were...
- Won, Filmfare Critics Award for Best MovieFilmfare Critics Award for Best MovieThe Filmfare Awards are the oldest and most prominent film awards given for Hindi films in India. The yearly awards started in 1953. Movie awards were first given by popular vote...
- Won, Filmfare Best Director AwardFilmfare Best Director AwardThe Filmfare Best Director Award is one of the main awards presented given by the annual Filmfare Awards to recognise directors working in the Hindi film Industry. It was first presented in 1954 in the inaugural year.-Superlatives:...
- Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature... - Won, Filmfare Best Supporting Actor AwardFilmfare Best Supporting Actor AwardThe Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor is given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a male actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role...
- Saeed JaffreySaeed JaffreySaeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
Berlin International Film Festival
28th Berlin International Film Festival
The 28th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 22 to March 5, 1978. This was the first year the festival was held in February.-Jury:* Patricia Highsmith * Sergio Leone* Theodoros Angelopoulos* Jacques Rozier...
- Nominated, Golden BearGolden BearAccording to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
for Best Film - Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...